In order to comply with Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) rule 78.1, every boat's owner or other person in change shall ensure "... that the boat is maintained to comply with her class rules and that her measurement certificate,.....,remains valid."
For Mirror dinghies this means you have to have a measurement certificate for the boat with the correct owner's details on it. You also need to be a member of the UK Class Association, have sails that carry a certification mark and the boat's buoyancy needs to have been checked within the last 12 months.
The annual buoyancy test or inspection can be carried out by a Mirror Class Measurer , or a properly appointed Club Official. To do the test you will need a buoyancy tank pressure guage. If your boat fails the test, see this article on checking and fixing leaks in the bouyancy tanks.
All sails which are to be used for racing need to carry a Certification Mark to show that they comply with the Class Rules. This can be either
Or
If your sails don't have an Certification Mark, you need to have them measured by an Official Measurer. There is a list of Mirror Class measurers in the list of International Class Measurers on the RYA website (the Mirror is an International rather than an National class), there is also a list of RYA Sail Measurers on the RYA website. Either can measure your Mirror sails.
You need to contact a measurer and arrange for them to carry out measurement. Expect the measurer to charge per hour for their services plus reasonable travel expenses, so discuss this with the measurer. It's also a good idea discuss the facilities available, for example you will need a flat, clean, well lit, indoor floor space large enough for the longest measurement (i.e. mainsail leech) to be taken, ideally large enough for a mainsail to be laid out with space to move around it.
If you have a Mirror dinghy, and there is no evidence of it having previously been measured, then you need to have it measured from scratch in order to get a measurement certificate.
If you are in the process of buying a new boat, then consider asking the builder to have the hull measured prior to delivery. The advantage of this is that if measurement picks up a problem (for example a buoyancy tank leaking), the builder is obliged to fix this, saving you a lot of trouble and expense.
Measurement can only be carried out by a Mirror Class Full Measurer. There is a list of Mirror Class measurers in the list of International Class Measurers on the RYA website (the Mirror is an International rather than an National class). You need to contact a measurer and arrange for them to carry out measurement. Expect the measurer to charge per hour for their services plus reasonable travel expenses, so discuss this with the measurer. It's also a good idea discuss the facilities available. For example, if the measurer uses a spring balance or load cell to weigh the hull, a beam, strong enough to suspend is boat from, is required.
Before the measurer comes, It's well worth checking the boat's buoyancy has a good chance of passing the strict pressure test and fixing it if it fails. You need about 1m of tube, say garden hose, which needs to be a snug fit in the drain hole. Then, with any hatches in place, blow one good breath (individual side or aft tank) or two good breaths (bow tank or combined aft & side tanks) into the tank. Hold your finger over the end of tube, wait 20 seconds, remove your finger. The tank should "blow back" strongly . If it does not, then the tank is leaking. You need to find the leak(s) and fix them and re-test until the tank "blows back" strongly. See this article on checking and fixing leaks in the bouyancy tanks
It's may worth checking any unusual features the boat has against the Class rules and modifying them if they don't comply.
Measurement should be undertaken under cover with space to get around the hull and a level clean floor. The Measurer needs to measure the hull, daggerboard, rudder, rigging & spinnaker pole, boom, bermuda mast or gunter mast & gaff. This includes weighing the hull and checking the buoyancy tanks are airtight. The measurer will fill in a set of measurement forms, one for each piece of equipment, sign and date them. The owner is required to fill in some sections on the hull measurement form and there are some sections on the individual forms which are the owners responsibilty to ensure compliance. You don't have to have a set of sails measured at the same time as the hull, and a lot of new sails now come pre-measured. But if you have un-measured sails it's worth getting them measured at the same time as the hull.
Be prepared to fix any problems the measurer finds there and then if possible. For example, if a measurment band is missing, or incorrecly positioned, this is fairly easy to rectify, saving the expense of re-measuring the item at another time.
Once you have a completed set of measurement forms, you need to send them to the Technical Department of the RYA together with the current owners details, in particular their name, address, sailing club (optional), boat name (optional) and the RYA certification fee (or you can pay with a card over the phone).
In order to comply with Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) rule 78.1, every boat's owner or other person in change shall ensure "... that the boat is maintained to comply with her class rules and that her measurement certificate,.....,remains valid."
For Mirror dinghies this means you have to have a measurement certificate with the correct owner's details on it. You also need to have sails that carry a certification mark and the boat's buoyancy needs to have been checked within the last 12 months.
The first thing to do is look to see if there is a certiticate in with any paperwork associated with the boat. At first these were issued by the UK Mirror Class Association and were folded cardboard looking like this.
When the class gained International Status in 1990 the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU, later ISAF, now World Sailing) took over issuing certificates (? I think). These were printed on blue paper. I'm afraid I've not got a picture of one I can show you.
More recently this task has been taken on by the National Authority in each country where Mirrors are sailed, so for us in the UK that means the Royal Yaching Association. These were also paper. Their appearance has changed over the years, here is one from 1995 and another from 2001.
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If there is a previous certificate then you just need to send it to the Technical Department of the RYA together with the current owners details, in particular their name, address, sailing club (optional), boat name (optional) and the RYA certification fee (or you can pay with a card over the phone). The RYA will transfer the date of the last buoyancy test from the old certificate and put it on the new one, so it's always worth sending in the old one if you have it.
If there is no old certificate with the boat, the next step is to check with the Technical Department of the RYA to see if they have issued a certificate for the boat in the past. If so, they will issue a new one on receipt of the current owners details, sailing club (optional), boat name (optional) and the RYA certification fee.
If you had a certificate, but have lost it, the RYA will issue a copy on receipt of the RYA certification fee.
If not, and your boat has a sail number below 69070, then it's possible that the UK Mirror Class Association has issued a certificate. This would have been prior to 1990 when the IYRU/ISAF and then the RYA took over this task. The MCA used a card index system to record which boats had been measured and owners details. Here is an example.
Sadly the Class Association had to dispose of this index - it took up a lot of space (about 56 drawers) and nobody, including the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, was prepared to store it. We retained two drawers, the first and the last. If your boat is very old (sail numbers 1 to 1200) or was built in the 1980s (sail numbers 64750 to 67087), we should have the card for your boat (some might be missing). Please contact Martin Egan and ask him to send you a scan of the card for your boat. If the card says the boat has been measured, then the RYA will issue a certificate on the strengh of the measurement recorded on the card. Send the scan of the card to the RYA Technical department together with current owners details and certification fee as you would if you had an old certificate (above).
If there is no old certificate, and no evidence of previous measurement then you need to contact a Full Mirror Measurer and arrange for the hull, spars and foils to be measured from scratch.
Having got a certificate with the current owners details on, you then need to:
As Mirrors are an International Class, the class rules are published by World Sailing (ex-IYRU, ex-ISAF). You can download a copy from the Mirror Class microsite on the World Sailing website.
To ensure you get the latest version, you need to navigate as follows
World Sailing also issue, with every new revsion of the class rules, an "amendment sheet" with name format MIRYYYYCRCDDMMYY.pdf which summaries the rule changes in the latest revision. This is useful if you just want to know what has changed.
Part of the Class Rules is the Wooden Boat Specification which details information and rules for Licensed kit manufacturers and wooden boat builders. This is also available on the World Sailing Website
As far as possible we use the World Sailing Equipment Rules Of Sailing (ERS) for definitions. Where a term appears in bold type within the class rules, it is being used in the sense defined in the ERS. You can download the latest version from the Equipment Rules Of Sailing page on the World Sailing website.
A set of Measurement Forms should be supplied with all new boats & each kit, and it should be signed (on page 9) by the (GRP) boat builder or kit manufacturer to say the boat or kit has been produced in compliance with the plans, rules & specification.
Otherwise they can be downloaded as above:
In the case of new (GRP) boats & kits supplied without forms, you can fill in the plaque (sail) number and send page 9 of the Hull Measurement form to the builder/kit manufacturer, and ask them to sign, and return to you.
